Final exam season is the most dreaded time of the academic year. That’s when you have to load up your brain with a full semester’s worth of material — from four or five courses — all the while finishing your courses and actually taking the finals. How’s a mere mortal supposed to do all this stuff? Before concluding you’re SOL, have a look at our ten best tips for acing your final exam prep:

#1 Count your way forward. Many students, when starting to think about preparing for finals, look at the dates of their finals and count their way back. “Biology final on Wednesday?” — Two or three study days needed. I guess I’ll start hitting the books on Sunday. A far better idea is to count up from the day the study guide is handed out (or if your professor doesn’t bother with such niceties, two weeks before the exam) to the day the exam will be held. “Fourteen days?” — I’ll divide the course into sevenths and study two weeks’ worth of lectures every other day.

Extra Pointer. If you can finish your term- or research paper the week before the last week of class, you’ll have a much easier — and more stress-free — time studying. Well worth the effort.

#2 Shed some commitments. You’ll have a lot easier time preparing for finals if you make some extra time for it. Put off any unnecessary social obligations or family commitments ’til after exam week. And, if you’re working, try if at all possible to take 10 days off during final exam period (or at least trim your work schedule). Even a few strategically placed extra hours can make the difference between doing just OK on finals and really acing them.

#3 Triage your study time. It’s not written anywhere that you have to spend equal time on studying for each of your five exams. Focus your attention on the one where there’s the most material to master. And don’t make the common mistake of concentrating on the course you’re doing best in, or the one that is your favorite.

5-Star Tip. If you’re right on the border-line between two grade-levels (say, you have an 89, a 79, or, gasp, a 69 in a course), it’s extra worth studying harder in that course since, with any luck, you can propel your grade to the next level — a real GPA- booster.

#4 Scope out the scope. Especially in courses in which there’s an overwhelming amount of material, it’s important to find out how much of the content is actually going to appear on the test. Is the final cumulative or does it just cover material since the midterm or last test (even if it’s cumulative, is it weighted in favor of the second half)? Does the professor expect that you know what was in the reading and what was covered in section, or are those parts of the course merely ornamental? And, once you know the answers to these questions, be sure to tailor your studying accordingly.

#5 Figure out the format. It’s always a good idea to know what kinds of questions will be on the final — short answer, problems, essays — and in what proportion. Ways to find out include: the prof’s or TA’s instructions in lecture or section, study guides or sample questions, the midterm and/or previous tests, and sometimes even just asking the prof or TA.

4-Star Tip. If you’re lucky enough to find last semester’s exam, either from a frat- or dorm buddy, be sure to scrutinize it like a hawk. And, if the professor puts up last year’s final on the course webpage — well, you’d have to be loco not to concentrate your studying on it.

#6 Map out the course. Every course has a plot and a direction. Before you begin to study, you should chart the main ideas of the course and how they were developed (a flow-chart, outline, or course-map can work well). If you don’t know or are unsure what the key points of the course were, look at the course syllabus, the schedule of lectures (if any), your own lecture notes, and anything the professor has handed out for the final.

#7 Avoid waste-of-time activities. Many students think it’d be a good idea to recopy their notes, listen to the lectures again on their MP3 player, or do all the reading again. Not. Keep in mind that studying-for-finals time is reviewing time, not redoing time.

Reality Check. If, for whatever (dumbass) reason, you haven’t done a major part of the reading, you should carefully consider how much (or how little) the reading is really going to count on the final. Time is at a premium now, and you wouldn’t want to squander it on useless reading.

#8 Collaborate — but only if you know how. One of the most popular ways of preparing for finals is the study group. This can work well, especially if the members of your study group are smarter than you. But you need to be sure that you aren’t just memorizing your cohorts’ reports, but are really understanding the concepts and methods they’re telling you about. No professor will be impressed by verbatim transcripts of your study group.

#9 Deal the prof (or TA) into your preparation. Many professors set up end-of-course activities to help you along: review sessions, extra office hours, sometimes simply a last lecture that sums up the class. Be sure you show up for these high-value activities. The professor might tell you what sort of questions will (or won’t) be on the final; what topics to emphasize (and deemphasize) in your studying; or what the point(s) of the course really was. Even some small hints can save you oodles of time once you sit down to study.

#10 Take a trial run. Every final-prep should culminate in your taking a practice final under test conditions. The night before the test, compose a series of questions that you think will be on the final, turn up the heat and plunk yourself down at a desk, close all your books and notes, set your timer to the length of the final, and write out your answers. Then pretend your the grader and evaluate what’s on the paper. If you do this exercise successfully, when you get to the test, you’ll be taking it for the second time. Which will make it a whole lot easier to do well. You’ll see.

21 Comments

I disagree with #4. Listen to the lectures again, but do it at a relaxed state. Like when you are going to bed. When you are calm. The information will be in your subconscious. I have a 3.5 GPA. I skim over the lectures, notes and any powerpoints available a couple of hours before any test. It has helped me tremendously.

i agree for my lecture we have to because the prof puts in every details so we have to revisit whatever he talked about in lecture and read the textbook and listen to the recording of the lecture. but of course it depends on the class.

I think the tips are very informative and can be useful for college students. I believe that for the #4 tip needs to be emphasized more, because I was confused on “Does the professor expect that you know what was in the reading and what was covered in section, or are those parts of the course merely ornamental? And, once you know the answers to these questions, be sure to tailor your studying accordingly.” What kind of questions need to ask in order to get the answers you are looking for to help you study for your final exams.

Often the professor says straight out what the expectations are for the final. So be sure to make all the classes, especially the last one or two. In some schools, where there are discussion sections, the TAs are responsible for giving guidance about what exactly is presupposed for the final. Be sure to make all the sections, and also ask the TA if you’re not sure what the role of, for example, the reading is. And any review sessions and office hours can also be venues to find out more. The questions you need to ask are simple and direct: will there be questions on the exam about the reading? are we responsible for the section discussions? will the exam cover the whole course or just the material from the midterm? Once you have a clear idea what is — and is not — going to be on the final, you can study a lot more efficiently.

WOW! thanks so much Chegg for these tips. I’m want of those students that freaks out when finals come, especially when paper essays are in between. I’m actually working in advance for my finals and you guys have given me great tips. Thanks a lot!

i”m currently doing third year and thing are just falling apart,it looks like i’m not doing my job,i’m starting to fail desimarly in most of my courses,such that i’ve failed all my first module tests and i’m starting to panic ahead of my second test starting this coming weekend whitch also have a very tight schedule with one day between.isn’t bit late for me to follow the guidlines given here?

Another good study tool I’ve found helps me tremendously is Quizlet.com. You do have to create an account, but it’s free and they’re not annoying with emails like other sites you have to sign up for are. With Quizlet, you can make online flashcards and then test yourself over and over, and even play games with whatever you enter as the “term” and the “definition.”

One of the best tips I’d ever received so I thought I’d pass it along!
Good luck to all

(for Susan and Nadia) Regarding tip #7: While there can be classes for which it would good to listen to all the lectures again, or to do all the readings again, in most cases there simply isn’t time for all this double work. Most often, you have four or five finals the same week, and it just isn’t possible to do all the work for a second time. Skimming over the lectures, taking a quick glance at the PowerPoints, or even looking over the syllabus with its class-headings (when available) can be very good ideas: usually those short bits of information can help you locate the key points that will be on the test. And, of course, doing it right up against the exam can help cement the details in your mind. Whatever you do, be sure to construct some sample questions of your own as part of your preparation, so you will have focused some of your study time on answering patrticular questions, not just giving the whole course the “once over lightly.” Best of luck on your finals! We’re pleased our tips have helped.

I think the tips sounded very good. The one I like the least “practice testing” is probably one of the most helpful. In fact I’m sure it is especially if there are essay questions on the test. Thanks for the suggestions.